Woodgate's point is well-taken. On this side of the Pond, we say that when you make it idiot-proof, we'll make a better idiot. But that isn't entirely accurate. The idiots are out there, the lawyers just find them. As soon as we as a society accept the tenet that consumers can be idiotic without limit, but that corporations must be omnisciently aware of every form of potential idiocy consumers might engage in, we have lost. "Genius has its limits, ignorance has none." A worse fallout from this mindset is that corporations are thought to be inherently evil, exploiting the helpless consumer, who therefore needs omnibenevolent government to regulate the evil corporations. This a 180 degree inversion of the truth. And it attracts to government exactly the kind you don't want there, those who are smarter than you are and know it and are therefore justified in whatever means they take to effect the end of protecting you from your own self.
on 7/26/01 2:50 PM, John Woodgate at [email protected] wrote: > > <20010723142822.KAXC20540.femail2.sdc1.sfba.home.com@[65.11.150.27]>, > Ken Javor <[email protected]> inimitably wrote: >> whose products are expected to be more and more >> foolproof. > > ....but the Devil keeps making more and more ingenious fools. ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Michael Garretson: [email protected] Dave Heald [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.rcic.com/ click on "Virtual Conference Hall,"
